Station-indicator for railway-cars, &amp;c.



K. A. vv. H'O'SBL.

STATION iNDILAl'HH FOB, RAILWAY GARS,'&C.

AFLIOATIUN FILED AUG, 7. 1912,

Patented Mar. 18, 1913,

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

L TA NEXT STATION FRANKLIN SQUARE 5 vw@ Wr@ 325 L3@ Hoz new K, A. W. H'O'SEL.

' STATION INDICATOR FOR RAILWAY CARS, 5o.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. '7, 19M.

Patented Mar. 18, 1913.

2 SHEETS-'SHEET 2.

Mmmm SQUARE L3 wr) JJ. il i @ya 2f W M m L 6 MA V0 UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEIoE.

KURT AUGUST WALTER HsEL, or DRESDEN, GERMANY.

Specicaton of Letters Patent.

l STATION-INDICATOR Eon RAILWAY-CARS, ac.

yPatented Mar. 18,1913.

Application sled August 7, 1912. serial No. 713,856.

To all wom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, KURT AUGUST WALTER HsEn, a citizen ofthe German Empire, residing in Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony," German Em ire, have invented certain new and useful mprovements in Station-Indicators for Railway-Cars, &c., of which thethe sign-boards provided with the individual names of the stations on an inclinedtrack alon which they slide down owing to gravlty, their motion being interrupted and controlled by a locking device. Preferably, both that part of the track which at first contains all the signs'a'nd is located above the locking device and also that part of the track which finally contains all the signs and is located below the lockingdevice are detachable so that they can be'exchanged one with the other in order to allow the signs to run along the track again.

The inclined track may be interrupted and arranged in any desired slanting position or vertically. Preferably, however, `the two parts of the track from which the signs are suspended by means of lateral pins are arranged at an angle, the aperture in the casing being arranged at the apex of the angle. In this 'manner I provide that the indicator is neither excessively deep nor excessively high. Lastly, it is desirable that the aperture and the sign behind it be arranged slanting in order to render visible to' persons quite near or immediately below the indicator the inscription of the sign appearing for the time being in the aperture. To this end, I prefer to release the signs suspended from the topv section of trac-k individually by means of an escapement and to allow them to slide on to an intermediate section at the apex of the disconnected tracks, whereupon they are arrested here one at a time in a slant-ingr position behind the slant-ing aperture by means of a catch; then in order to allow the sign last exposed to pass on, this catch is disengaged by the next .to the side Walls of the casin .sign being released by the escapement, falllng on to a movable part of the track connected with the catch to form a two-armed lever,.and loading this part of the track` while the'sign slides over it. y

One illustrative embodiment of my "im vention is represented by way of example in the accompanying drawings, wherein :-l Figure 1 is a' vertical section taken at right-angles to the front of thel indicator, Fi'g. 2 a front elevation, Fig. 3 a vertical section taken parallel to the fron-t of the indicator, and Fi s. 4 and 5 are detail views. Referring to t 'e drawin s, in the upper part of the casing A an exc, angeable frame b, c rests on angle bars a which are attached down toward the front; this rame comprises a top plate b, and two U-bars c at` tached to its underl side, the open sides of these bars facing one another. A frame of exactly similar construction Arests in the lower part of the casing on bars a slanting down to the rear. The U-bars c constitute the angular interrupted track for the sign-boards B 'rovided with the names of the stations.

Xs Fig. 3 clearly shows, the signs B carry pins el which project into the bars c and are prevented from jumping out of the track by flanges e on the bars and collars f on the ends of the pins.A The length of each frame is determined by the number of signs to be carried directly behind one another on it. In order to prevent the signs sliding out when conveying the frame, the front part of the plate b lis formed as a hinged strip g and provided with downwardly projecting lugs By means-of a latch t provided with a handle and guided on the plate lb the hinged and slant strip g can be fixed in the osition shown in Fig.4. This strip g can a so be. held by the same latch in its open position by the front end of the latch engaging in a recess in the strip. The. frame is prevented from sliding off the bars L by hook-shaped stops 7c located at the front of the bottom of the frame and entering into recesses in the bars a.

In the front folding part A ofthe caslng A theltrack runs out into the guide Z, This guide comprises a'slide m at whose end islocking disk P; as clearly shown in Fig. 5, the anchor 0 rocking about its plvot 0 is influenced by a spring-actuated armature g. which coacts withl an electromagnet 'C in such a manner that whenever the circuit of the magnet is closed and the armature (l 1s attracted the ratchet n, is released and a sign fed by' the pressure of its pins bearing against the locking disk and then onto thc guide Z. The guide Z also comprises a movable track portion s which constitutes with a hook t a two-armed lever rocking about the fixed fulcrum u. The hook t coacts in such a manner with the front edge v of the guide Z that it normally holds the pins ofthe sign ZJ which has arrived here, a spring w aiding it.

. The downwardly slanting and rearwardly inclined aperture D' in the hinged front part A of thecasing A begins at the edge fv, and the track for the pins ofthe signs B 4continues from here as a guide m which corresponds in form to the slanting position of the aperture and connects with the track formed by the lower frame. l

The device for Xing the hinged strip or bar g will now be described with reference to the topframe. It comprises a curved pin z which is fast on a shaft y and projects into an eye z fast on the-hinged strip. The shaft y can be rotated and xed in two positions by a handlevE fast on it outside the side wall of the casing A. A p

My improved. indicator is manipulated and operates asfollows :v-A closed frame Z), c filled with the requisite signs is first pushed on to the top rails a of the casing whose front portion A is moved downward.

about the pivot-pin F. Care must be taken that the curved pin z passes into the eye z on the hinged strip g. An empty frame having its strip g folded up` is then pushed on to the bottom angle bars a. The part A ot' the casin is then turned upward and securely closed y hooks G which enter into eyes H. By rocking the handley E into its second position the hinged strip g of the y top` frame is lifted, as shown in Fig. l,

whereupon the pile of signs slides forward -until the pins of the front sign bear against the lateral locking disks P. 'On closing the circuit of the electromagnet C the latter is energized and its armature q attracted, so that the locking disk P is'fed one step forward. The first signv consequently slides over the movable part sl of the track and is caught at 'v by the hooks 25. The inscription of this sign is accordingly vvisible through the slanting aperture D. llZVhen the electroinagnet is' again energizedthe next sign slides on to the movable part s of the track. The two-armed lever s, t is caused -to rock so that the sign previously held in front of the aperture by the hooks t can now slide over the part of the track into the open fralne located below. As soon as the second sign just released by the escapenieni, has passed over the movable part s of the track, the pressure on this lever-arm .w ceases. so that the two-armed lever rocks back into the position according;v to Fig. l under the iniuence of the spring u' and the hook t catches the second sign. Conso quently, this second sign nov.' remainsl slm tionary in 'front of the aperture. When the circuit is again closed the play is repeated. Then all the signs that have been conveyed from the top frame into the bottom frame` e. if the vehicle has traveled to the end of the line or section in question, the fron( part A of the casing is turned down and the strip g of the bottom frame is unbolted, turned over into its closed position and bolted afresh. The bottoni frame filled with signs is then pulled out and also the 8 empty top frame. The two frames are exchanged one for the other and pushed in the above-described manner into the casing A and on to the tracks a and a, whereupon the indicator is ready for the reverse direction of travel.

To provide for the apparatus when not in operation I arrange at the front part Af of the casing a Hap K (Fig. 2) which is normally yheld in its elevated position by a 95 catch J and when lowered covers the aperl ture D.

I claim:-

1. A station-indicator; colnprisin a casing having a hinged front-part, guide-rails 10Q in said casing slanting in opposite directions to each other, removable frames sup ported on said guide-rails, slidahle signoards supported on said frames, an escape ment for permitting the passage ol one 165 sign-board after the other, a rocking guideplate, and an inclined guide 'for ccnidncting one sign-board after the other from the guide-plate to t-he lower trame.

2. A station-indicator, comprising` a casing provided with a hinged front-part, fixed guide-rails in said casing slanting in opposite directions to each other, removable sign-carrying frames supported on said p idc-rails, sign-boards supported in said -Illames, an electrically-actnated escapcment for permitting the passage of one Sigi-r board after the other, a slide-plate adjacent to the lower end of the upper sign-carrying frame, said escapcmcnt-mechanisin hc- 12o ing adjacent to said slide-plate, a rocking guide-plate provided with stop-hooks be low the escapeinenh and an inclined guide connecting the rocking guide-plate with the lower sign-carrying frame.

3. ln a station-indicator, the combination of a casing, interchangeable signecarrying frames supported in the. saine, sign-hmivds shiftable in said frames, a hinged plate at the end of each .Zi-aine, Vvncans for loci-ving," Lio said plates for retaining all the sign-boards in ysaid frames` when interchan ing the sign-carrying frames in 'the casing, and means for lifting said hinged plates and releasing the sign-carrying frames after they carrying Vframe, means for locking the plate onto lthe sign-boards Vfor preventing their escape from the frame when the latter is transferred, and means for holding the locking plate in released position when placed 15- in proper position in the case.

' In testimony, that I claim the foregoing as my invention, I have signed myname ln presence of two subscribing witnesses.

KURT AUGUST WALTER IISEL,

Witnesses RICHARD IFFERTE, GUSTAV MLLER. 

